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Pa. city hopes Wild West auction can help chip at $1 billion debt (video)

harrisburg auction.jpg

A Colt 78 double action pistol belonging to Red Angus is one of the items up for sale at Harrisburg's Wild West auction. The sale has attracted more than 5,800 online bidders - and more than 1,500 offers - one week ahead of its Monday July 11 start, prompting organizers to add two days of tours allowing prospective buyers to peruse the 8,000 items up for sale. Joe Hermitt, PennLive.com

A Wild West-themed auction featuring thousands of items is scheduled to begin today in Harrisburg, Pa. It's hoped that the auction will have an impact, if only a small one, on Harrisburg's municipal debt issues.

Pennsylvania's capital city is facing a startling debt crisis. With just 50,000 residents, Harrisburg's local agencies have a combined debt of more than $1 billion, PennLive's Emily Previti reports.

The proceeds garnered from the city's auction are expected to be small, both with respect to the city's total debt load, as well as to the price paid for those items. The city's financial recovery plan lists the 8,000 artifacts' current value at $500,000, Previti reports. Together with the $1.7 million brought by prior sales of the 2,000 highest-quality objects, that would mean a return of roughly one quarter of the $8.3 million total payment estimate provided by the city.

The Associated Press spoke to Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's Auction House, about the upcoming event. That video interview is embedded below.